Leaving La Paz

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With my jungle adventure out of the way it was time to say farewell to La Paz. Though I still hadn´t warmed to the city, I had to admit that it had served me well as a base for multiple excursions into other areas of Bolivia. There was no regret but a definite sense of uprooting and moving on, I was starting to get used to my criminally cheap room at the Hotel Majestic.

This next phase of the trip was all a bit fuzzy as I had never been able to get a firm idea of how long it would take me to get from La Paz to Cusco and whether I really wanted to see anything in between. So I set off with Roxy (still with me until after Cusco) for the bus terminal with a vague plan to spend a night in Copacobana and a night in Puno to break up the long haul. As usual, a bus was patiently waiting when we stepped out of our taxi and we departed immediately.

These buses pick up locals along the way for what seems to be varying negotiated prices so it was no surprise when we pulled up next to a pile of car tyres and the driver entered into an animated conversation with a knot of Peruvian women. The surprise came when they reached an agreement and began loading the hundreds of tyres onto the roof and then… after much heated debate… into the bus. Understandably the driver was not too happy about having all of his spare seats filled up with tyres but the Peruvian Tyre Smugglers prevailed and we were soon laughing and helping them to roll them down the aisle.

I had shot a video of them loading up the roof and, when the ringleader saw me playing it back on the camera, she began to laugh hysterically and gathered the others around to watch it over and over. This led to much useful advice about our route from a Peruvian native and, later, further assistance with our transfer at the ferry crossing. Good vibes.

Copacobana was nice enough but, to me, it really seemed like the only thing to do was hop on a boat to see Isla Del Sol - birthplace of the Incas and home to their creation legend.

We set out for the long boat trip to the Island in a drizzling rain and under ominously black skies but they must have known I was on the way as, with our first steps on the island, the clouds parted and the sun beamed down on us. (There were fresh piles of hail everywhere).

We had a very interesting tour around the North end of the Island and examined the stone altar at which the Incas would ritually sacrifice young girls to the sun god. When you turn 360 degrees at this point, it is not hard to see why they selected it. The scene is amazing. With the sun directly overhead, the neverending blue of Lake Titicaca stretches out in every direction and a stiff cold breeze rushes up from the green beaches below. On the horizon, the snow-capped Andes peer out of the clouds.

Puffing in the ultra-thin air, we had a pleasant 4 hour trek across the ridge ine of the island to meet our boat. It was hard not to take a photo every few minutes, the pre-Inca terraces on the hillsides were still in use and bursting with crops, llamas wandered in and out of view with an occasional flock of sheep would hurry across the track.

Unfortunately, through the combination of cold wind and amazing scenery, we completely forgot about our sunscreen.
Ouch. At this altitude the sun doesn´t mess around and we both got nicely roasted. I looked like a scary raccoon because of my sunglasses and neither of us could remember being burned like that in a very long time. Luckily we were both fairly wrapped up against the cold and only small patches of skin were left to suffer.

After some more stuffed Titicaca Trout, it was time to cross the border into Peru and investigate the other side of this massive lake and the floating Islands of Puno…

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Photos

Confirmed: Pigs snore
The king of Isla De Sol was fast asleep and his snoring had me belly-laughing.

Peruvian Tyre Smuggling
Let´s just hope the bus doesn´t stop in a hurry...

Isla De Sol
Birthplace of the Inca religion

Sacrifice
Had a weird karma-shiver after this. Hope I didn´t displease the gods.

Not a great shot but...
...check out those Andes!